Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making

Economic forces are everywhere around you. But that doesn't mean you need to passively accept whatever outcome those forces might press upon you. Instead, with these 12 fast-moving and crystal clear lectures, you can learn how to use a small handful of basic nuts-and-bolts principles to turn those same forces to your own advantage.

Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills

No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.

An Economic History of the World since 1400

Most of us have a limited understanding of the powerful role economics has played in shaping human civilization. This makes economic history - the study of how civilizations structured their environments to provide food, shelter, and material goods - a vital lens through which to think about how we arrived at our present, globalized moment. Designed to fill a long-empty gap in how we think about modern history, these 48 lectures are a comprehensive journey through more than 600 years of economic history.

Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior

Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do.

Food: A Cultural Culinary History

Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."

The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition

Grasp the important ideas that have served as the backbone of philosophy across the ages with this extraordinary 60-lecture series. This is your opportunity to explore the enormous range of philosophical perspectives and ponder the most important and enduring of human questions-without spending your life poring over dense philosophical texts.

The Science of Energy: Resources and Power Explained

To better put into perspective the various issues surrounding energy in the 21st century, you need to understand the essential science behind how energy works. And you need a reliable source whose focus is on giving you the facts you need to form your own educated opinions.

Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You

The brain is an astounding organ, and today neuroscientists have more insights than ever about how it works - as well as strategies for helping us live better every day. These 24 practical lectures give you a wealth of useful strategies for improving your well-being. By presenting evidence-based "hacks" for your brain, Professor Vishton empowers you to take charge of your life and perform better all around.

Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare

Cyberspace is the 21st century’s greatest engine of change. Telecommunications, commercial and financial systems, government operations, food production - virtually every aspect of global civilization now depends on interconnected cyber systems to operate; systems that have helped advance medicine, streamline everyday commerce, and so much more.

How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making

In How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making, Professor Ryan Hamilton, associate professor of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, uses research revealed via the scientific method to understand and explain human decision making. While his easygoing manner and anecdotes about surprising and bizarre choices will keep you enthralled, Professor Hamilton also shares what decision science has revealed through empirically tested theories.

Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science

Understanding our humanity - the essence of who we are - is one of the deepest mysteries and biggest challenges in modern science. Why do we have bad moods? Why are we capable of having such strange dreams? How can metaphors in our language hold such sway on our actions? As we learn more about the mechanisms of human behavior through evolutionary biology, neuroscience, anthropology, and other related fields, we're discovering just how intriguing the human species is.

English Grammar Boot Camp

Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar? In fact, it's the integral basis of how we speak and write. As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word.

Publisher's Summary

Money and finance play a deeply fundamental role in your life. Now, let an expert professor lead you in a panoramic exploration of our monetary and financial systems, their inner workings, and their crucial role and presence in your world.

As a guiding theme of these 36 content-rich lectures, you observe the ways in which economies require efficient and evolving financial institutions and markets to fulfill their potential. In building a full view of our financial system, you delve into these and other vital subjects: central banks, commercial banks, and the Federal Reserve; interest rates and interest rate policy; bonds and stock markets; and foreign exchange and international banking.

Across the arc of this lecture series, you'll tackle key topics that shed light on the functioning of our financial system as a whole. You study the critical subject of inflation and its relationship to the consumer price index and to excess money growth. You'll investigate the causes and implications of the federal deficit and the national debt. In the international arena, you'll learn about the implications of trade deficits in global economic relationships and the question of monetary policy coordination between nations, weighing the significant benefits to the global economy of cooperation between central banks.

This is a rare chance to gain a grounded understanding of our monetary and financial systems, and to grasp the vital elements of finance that directly affect our way of life, our national concerns, and your own life and future.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Although the conceptual portions of the course were easily understood, much of this course cannot be retained or understood without the study guide. When the speaker goes into great detail of equations and charts, it is impossible to follow while driving or just listening.

What was most disappointing about The Great Courses’s story?

Only about a third of this course was understandable/useable without the study guide.

Any additional comments?

Until Audible gets the rights to allow you to download the study guide, I would not recommend this course. Too much valuable information is lost without it.

I listened to this to help me gain a deeper understanding of what the hell it is that the Fed and other central bankers do. It helped somewhat. Salemi’s explanations are clear and he’s unbiased in his presentation (unlike, say, Ron Paul’s End the Fed). The topics cover more territory than just central banking. Here are the lecture titles to help you know what the course covers:

1. The Importance of Money 2. Money as a Social Contract3. How Is Money Created?4. Monetary History of the United States5. Local Currencies and Nonstandard Banks6. How Inflation Erodes the Value of Money7. Hyperinflation Is the Repudiation of Money8. Saving—The Source of Funds for Investment9. The Real Rate of Interest10. Financial Intermediaries11. Commercial Banks 12. Central Banks13. Present Value14. Probability, Expected Value, and Uncertainty 15. Risk and Risk Aversion16. An Introduction to Bond Markets17. Bond Prices and Yields18. How Economic Forces Affect Interest Rates 19. Why Interest Rates Move Together20. The Term Structure of Interest Rates21. Introduction to the Stock Market22. Stock Price Fundamentals23. Stock Market Bubbles and Irrational Exuberance24. Derivative Securities25. Asymmetric Information26. Regulation of Financial Firms27. Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Reregulation28. Interest Rate Policy at the Fed and ECB29. The Objectives of Monetary Policy30. Should Central Banks Follow a Policy Rule?31. Extraordinary Tools for Extraordinary Times32. Central Bank Independence33. The Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar34. Exchange Rates and International Banking35. Monetary Policy Coordination36. Challenges for the Future

For what it’s worth, I had a really hard time finishing this, taking almost four months. I’m generally not a fan of the Great Courses (I listened to two others on cybersecurity and critical decision-making). The courses seem to share the same strength: organization/conceptual clarity in surveying the various topics you might expect to find under the topic’s umbrella. But they also share the same weakness, i.e., a certain superficial quality. I did not think that Salemi dumbed down the lectures as I felt with the other Great Courses. But, IMHO, he did not linger long enough on some difficult issues.

Also, you should know that this lecture series comes from a video. Salemi references many graphs, charts, and formulas that you obviously can’t see. In some cases (e.g., the explanations of several formulas), the absent visuals made the lecture quite hard to follow.

Salemi, while an excellent lecturer, is one of the slowest speakers you’ll find on Audible. At 2x speed, he sounded like a normal lecturer.

All in all, while I’d recommend passing, I’m not sure what book out there is better as a survey of these topics.

This lecture series does what academics do best for me (full disclosure, I am one): based on much painstaking background work (invisible to the listener), the professor puts together plain, clear explanations, and a map, in effect, of what the parts are, how they work, and why they are this way. (Thus some parts may be obvious to the listener, but the overall content is very good.) Meanwhile, the technical terminology is built right in. A critical point is, the professor does not have an axe to grind, a hidden agenda. I have heard and read countless explanations since 2008 of banking, finance, Great Recession, the history, etc., from politicians, authors, news, etc., in which (1) the fundamental concepts are not made clear, and (2) the speaker/writer starts right in with a biased, often emotion-laden, simplistic "explanation" designed merely to manipulate the listener, mostly because there is a hidden interest somewhere: getting election/power, selling splashy books, etc. The listener can come away "feeling smart," and perhaps in a suitable emotive huff of anger at the supposed "bad guys," without ever learning a reasonable amount about the underlying business / topic. THIS audio is the antidote. To paraphrase Hendrix: learn before you burn.The prof uses generally smaller words, and speaks in a slower cadence, than some others, which I appreciate, as this fits well with listening while doing another activity like driving, or my endless hikes (sometimes while reacting to traffic, etc.). I am able to mix all this together and come out with good comprehension, without a lot of rewinds.

I bought this course after having listened to or read a number of books on economics. I have been trying to find the person who has some idea of what we should expect in the future. A fool's errand? Not as much as one may think!The course is about as comprehensive on the subject as a reasonable person could expect. He begins with the basics: what money is, and then proceeds gradually to the point where one cannot keep up without being able to look at the visual aids he refers to. Beware, this is a deeper subject than you may have thought.My only real criticism is that when he mentions the sub-prime mortgage collapse he seems to be obtuse about what the prime mover of the fiasco was, namely government pressure to lend money to folks who could not afford it. He mentions this not at all. He gives no mention to what I saw on a firsthand basis: Persons who became mortgage brokers almost overnight during the early 2000s, who had money to loan to anyone. "If you know someone who wants to buy a house, send them to me. I have people who want to lend money!" they spouted cheerfully. I thought it peculiar at the time but after the collapse came I learned that most of the badly written mortgages were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, quasi-government organizations who took any and all paper off the hands of these unscrupulous agents. These ubiquitous brokers generated mortgages solely for the fees they could charge, only to unload the risk on the taxpayers via Freddie and Fannie. To neglect this aspect of the collapse is hardly commendable. It leaves the student uninformed of something very important. Is there a political allegiance here? I wonder. Nonetheless, he redeems himself at the end where he states flatly that without a policy change a crisis IS coming. He does not elaborate but seems to assume that his listener now has enough information to reach that conclusion on their own. I guess that's so. This prof. is one of many economic gurus who see trouble on the horizon.What everyone should know? Indeed!

Would you try another book from The Great Courses and/or Professor Michael K. Salemi?

Yes, I like audio courses, and the lecturer did a fine job. His main issue was referring to pictures and graphs that the audio listener can't see (not his fault)

What do you think your next listen will be?

Another educational book.

What three words best describe Professor Michael K. Salemi’s performance?

Reliant on graphs.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Money and Banking: What Everyone Should Know?

I would not sell this audiobook. It really needs the visual portion to be understood. It was also misleadingly placed in under "Personal Finance" but I thought the focus was more on banking history, and basic economics. I equate "Personal Finance" with more of a focus on financial literacy.

This is a very useful course if you 1) want to review finance, money, banking and trading, or 2) are without knowledge and want a primer on the subjects. Well instructed; very well instructed.. After a listen, a very long listen, you will have a grasp of the world of finance and banking.

This lecture series was alright... I liked some sections more than others. Particularly, I liked the discussions on the nature of money, the history of money in the US, and some of the other early lectures on fundamentals like how banks work and kinds of financial investments.

It lost my interest somewhat in the details of calculating present value and yields. One major disadvantage was the lack of visual aids, especially when it came to those calculations and the many graphs and charts used in discussions of interest rates. I made up for this with a quick google search and found a PDF of course guide, but it didn't include every figure (maybe 80%). Definitely helped me get more than I would have without them.

I was only sort of interested in the discussion of regulation and the recent subprime mortgage crisis - partly because by that stage in the series I was able to figure out most of what he said about it just based on previous lectures and a few Wall Street Journal articles. I did appreciate though that he steered clear of politicizing the discussion. And, for that, he always noted specifically when a view or adherence to a theory was his own, and gave multiple perspectives.

My interest went back up at the end of the series when he zoomed out to the international financial stage and discussed exchange rates, the IMF, ECB policy, etc. I liked being able to expand all the previously learned points to the global scale and see how different economies effect and interact with each other. I was particularly interested in his points about the challenges facing the Euro and the potential future of the Eurozone, and what may happen to the US given its high sustained deficits and trade deficits.

I think Salemi's lecture style was a little slow for my tastes. Both in the sense of his topic/lecture delineation, and in his speaking delivery. He also has a tendency to merge words at the beginning of a phrase, like his mind jumped to word two while he was still trying to get out word one, resulting in smashing the two together and causing brief stutters and re-starting his thought. I'd even call this pervasive. It wasn't overly annoying, I'd have understood him 99% of the time had he not corrected, but it was just so often it was noticeable. I wonder why there was no sound editing, but I gather they just didn't bother in grabbing the audio from the video version which I'm sure this began as.

I will henceforward be more in tune when I hear news about the fed and banking regulations, though the practical knowledge gained on stocks and bonds and the like doesn't get me much further than I am. Solid 3-3.5 stars out of 5. I'd be interested in a sequel, the next level of lectures, to apply these basics and get into the good stuff, but for now all I've got in the vicinity to turn to is the Economics lecture series, also intro level content.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. I have listened to it every morning whilst I drive to work and over the period of a few weeks feel as if I now understand some fundamentals of economics that have alluded me to date. I come from the East End of London, and back in the day when I went to school we were never taught any of this type of information. I run a business which nowadays is no mean feat. CEOs have to understand complex and demanding information. The learning never stops. These courses are really helpful and this particular course is easy to really one of the best I have listened to. The lecturer is a consummate communicator and I am pleased I have invested my time in listening to this course.